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The Inflow of American Television Fiction on European Broadcasting 43

TABLE 4.4 ORIGIN OF FILMS ON EUROPEAN TELEVISION IN 1988, 1991 AND 1997
(IN PERCENTAGES)
1988 a 1991 a 1997
National 29 20 17.5
USA 46 53 57.5
Europe 19 23 20
France 6 5 4
Great Britain 4 9 4
Germany 3 4 1
Rest of Europe 6 5 5
Co-productions − − 6
Other 6 4 5
a
Source: 1988 and 1991: De Bens et al. (1992: 91).

national films to the advantage of European cinema but even more so American
cinema. Between 1991 and 1997 we observe a further decrease of national films,
though it is less marked. European films do not increase, but slightly decrease. The
only category that remains on the increase is American cinema.
To gain a full insight into the shifts within the European films a spot check
of two weeks is not sufficient. It does look, however, as if the European
co-productions replace the separate French, German and British productions.

The origin of series

Here again the share of foreign productions is significant: 79.8 percent of the
series are imported whereas 20.2 percent are of national origin. This share is still
higher than the share of national films (17.4 percent). Public channels broadcast
more national series (29.9 percent) than the commercial ones (17.3 percent). In
prime-time the share of national series doubles (!) (see Table 4.5). Only Wallonia
has no home-produced series. Germany shows a remarkably high share of
national series. The German public channels ARD and ZDF broadcast
respectively 87.5 percent and 71.4 percent national series and up to 90 percent in
prime-time. This is a substantial progress compared to 1991 when the public
channels reached a share of 45 percent and the commercial channels registered
only 1 percent. Germany cannot look back on a long tradition of soaps and
series. According to Mohr and O’Donnell (1996: 34–5) home-produced series
only started in 1992, with the launch on RTL of the daily soap Gute Zeiten,
Schlechte Zeiten. Flanders and the Netherlands also have a limited tradition of
home-produced series. Great Britain, on the other hand, is the pre-eminent
European country for traditions, and also proves it in the field of home-
produced soaps. The British public channels BBC1 and BBC2 have a significant
share of home-produced series (44 percent). However, compared to 1991 this
represents a decline: down from 52 percent among the public channels and
55 percent among the commercial channels.